The Italian vestment firm Atelier Sirio are someone we have featured on various occasions, often time in relation to the excellent antique restoration work, but they also produce new vestment work as well (take, for example, some of their medieval inspired work).
Recently one of their projects came across my desk which featured something that is a bit of a hybrid of their ability to do historical restorations, combined with their pursuit of new vestment work. It is a project that involved the restoration of a medieval orphrey which was then, once restored, re-applied to a new base chasuble.
The chasuble in question comes in a Borromean cut -- which, for those not familiar, is a cut which follows the proportions laid our for the Milanese by the one-time Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, St. Charles Borromeo, in his liturgical instructions.
First and foremost, however, the orphrey needed to be prepared for re-use, involving cleaning and general repairs to stabilize it for liturgical use.
With that accomplished, the orphrey (of which only the back, cross orphrey was available I should note) was then re-applied to a new base of raw, cream-white silk. (The selection of raw silk here seems especially apropos given the rustic character of the medieval embroideries.)
To prevent any loss of the historical textile, the length of the orphrey itself no doubt dictated that there were realistically only two feasible options for the shape of the chasuble shape; it would need to either be gothic or Borromeam, and the shape of the orphrey generally certainly lends itself particularly well to the Borromean shape, so this too was an excellent direction.
The front of the chasuble was left quite simple, with a simple Tau cross.
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| Our Lady and other figures at the foot of the Cross |
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